[Phpgroupware-developers] Re: timestamps with my MySQL in schema_proc

[totschnig . michael]

Michael Dean <address@hidden> a écrit:

> The point is it does not behave like timestamps in other databases.  If
> you have multiple timestamps in the record, only the first one is
> implicitly updated.  It makes way too many assumptions to be useful.
>
> Do you have something against the datetime data type?  The reason it was
> chosen was for portability (read: similar behavior to other SQL
> servers).  If you introduce the timestamp, you introduce MySQL specific
> behavior implicitly to the application.

I have nothing against the datetime data type, but it does not provide
the functionality, I am looking for, i.e. automatically being updated
without having to set its value.
If this functionality does not exist in other databases, this is a
valid point, but why then let postgresql use the timestamp? Also I
think it would be preferable, to tell phpgroupware developers that if
they want to have a portable application to not use automatic
timestamps but to use datetime and set it manually, instead of forcing
them to not use timestamp. For example, I am developing an
application, which is meant to run on MySQL, and I am willing to
sacrifice portability for the convenience of simpler code with the
timestamp data type.
Also I am not convinced by the fact that multiple timestamps are
updated differently in MySQL and other databases, since normally why
would you need several *timestamps*, if all they tell you is when the
row was updated. In other words, I do not think, that the fact that a
data type behaves strangely in strange cases, should prevent us from
using it in the normal cases.

Michael